Chess Set Generator
A full chess set from sheet wood: the board with its squares and labels, and 32 flat pieces that press into round bases. Set the board's size and everything else follows, so the pieces always fit the squares.
Set a size to see your set.
Free preview · Unlimited downloads with any plan
Sheet
The set is cut from three sheets: the board, the light set and the dark set. See them all together, or pick one to see and download it on its own. To draw the pieces on both faces, engrave a set's sheet with its cut lines turned off, cut the stock to the file's size first, turn it over side to side, and run its back file: it draws the other faces and cuts the parts out.
Board
One sheet: the squares are scored on it and the dark ones hatched, so it is quick to make.
Size
Squares 29.53 mm · bases 25.4 mm · king 41.64 mm tall
Material
One sheet for everything. Measure it with calipers: the tabs and the slots are sized from it. Kerf is the width of the cut; 0 turns it off.
Press fit
How much narrower each slot is than the sheet. Raise it if the pieces wobble, lower it if they will not go in.
Materials
How the set goes together
- 1
Lay out the board
Cut the board and score its squares and labels. The hatched squares are the dark ones; a1 is in the bottom left corner.
- 2
Set out the bases
Put a base on each square of the first two and the last two rows, the slot running across the board.
- 3
Press in the pieces
Push each piece's tab into the slot of a base. If they wobble, raise the slot fit a little and cut the bases again.
What is in the files
- Engraved or inlaid board
- Score the board on one sheet with the dark squares hatched, or switch to inlay: 64 squares cut from two woods press into a framed window for a classic wooden board.
- A scored board
- The board's outline, the 64 squares with the dark ones hatched, and a to h and 1 to 8 round the edge in a single-line font.
- 32 pieces and their bases
- Each side on its own sheet: 8 pawns, the back row and 16 slotted bases nested in two rows.
Questions about the chess set generator
Designing and previewing is free and needs no account. Downloading the SVG files and opening the design in the editor is included in every VectorWitch plan, with no limit on downloads.
Yes. Everything is sized from the board: the squares from the board and its border, the bases from the squares, and the pieces from the bases. Change the board size and the whole set follows.
Each piece has a tab under it that presses into a slot through a round base. The slot is cut from your sheet's thickness, a little narrower for a snug fit, so no glue is needed.
The light pieces have their outline drawing hatched; on the dark pieces everything round the drawing is hatched, so it stands out light on the darker face. Cut each set from its own wood, birch and cherry or walnut for example.
The reference set uses 1/8 inch (3 mm) plywood for the board, the pieces and the bases. Any thickness works: enter it and the tabs and slots are sized to match.
They are "Classic Chess Set" by printsRus, shared on Printables under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. We changed it: the meshes are simplified for the web, the knight's mane is filled into one solid crest so it prints, and the pieces are scaled to fit your board. The board's print file is made by the generator.
